Kukla's Korner Hockey

We spoke with one team executive who said the problem with the dramatic difference in how playoff games are called from game to game and period to period -- especially as it relates to the standards set in the regular season -- is that it makes casual fans feel at best confused and at worst stupid.

They watch a game in the regular season and see a player make contact with an opposing player, impede his progress, obstruct him, take his hand off his stick and grab him, and the referee's arm goes up and a penalty is called. They get that. They come to expect it, and that understanding gives them a connection to the game.

A week later it's the playoffs and there's no guarantee that the calls get made.

And if it's overtime or a Game 7, well, the odds that you'll see calls made decrease further.

"This lack of objectivity makes [fans] feel they're not in the know," the team executive said.

Does this lack of clarity have a negative impact on the game's growth?

If it does, it's something team owners and players should have a keen interest in improving given that they share the revenue pie.

Comments

I would say that it makes everyone involved: players, coaches, GMs and fans (devoted and casual alike) irate to see teams get hosed night after night because the NHL can’t get its collective shit together regarding its own rules.

And it doesn’t help that whenever they stop calling a rule as it was written, they add another rule into the books to make up for the error, instead of just enforcing the original rule from then on, which probably adds to the confusion for new fans and lowers the accessability of the sport.

Posted by
Hootinani
from the parade following Babs out of town on 06/11/13 at 02:35 PM ET

I don’t feel confused or stupid. I know boarding when I see it.

However, I’m also not a casual fan.

I feel frustrated, though. Stabby is a great way to describe it, too. I feel like throwing rulebooks at the refs until they somehow absorb the information contained within and begin calling the games the right.way.

I think the confusing thing for the slightly-more-than-casual-fan is the fact that there will be a blatant call and then stupid Pierre or Olschyique will praise the fact that it’s not being called.

It’s one thing to be able to watch a play and say “How did he miss that?!?!?” but it’s a completely different thing to think that you’ve seen something go uncalled and then to have the idiot narrating the game tell you that it’s a good thing that wasn’t called.

I think the confusing thing for the slightly-more-than-casual-fan is the fact that there will be a blatant call and then stupid Pierre or Olschyique will praise the fact that it’s not being called.

The broadcast personalities aren’t held to any standards of objectivity. I would expect that sort of nonsense from a team broadcast from Comcast Sports or Fox Sports, but NBC is a national broadcaster. I expect better of them.

And every year, I end up disappointed. Not confused, just disappointed.

Not sure how the NHLs stoopidity and confusion should make me feel stoopid or confused.
My standards don’t change from April to May.

Posted by
MOWingsfan19
from I really like our team on 06/11/13 at 05:24 PM ET

the NHL can’t get its collective shit together regarding its own rules.

Guys, if the NHL wanted good officiating they’d have good officiating. Trying to pass this off as incompetence is a mistake.

The ambiguity of officiating isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. The league wants their games called this way. They handpick the officials that ref these games. It’s not like the league draws names out of a hat and goes ‘Oh, bleep… O’Halloran’s name got picked AGAIN?!?!’